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Digitise Knox and Dandenong Ranges News

Support the campaign to help #fundTrove digitisation of Knox and the Dandenong Ranges? historical local newspapers, seeing more of our collective history easily accessible and conveniently searchable on Trove. The Dandenong Ranges Historical Council (an umbrella group of 4 historical societies, a local action group and a branch of the National Trust) and local residents are campaigning to see 7 historical local newspapers digitised. We?d be grateful for your support of our campaign as this will help see our area?s historical local newspapers readily accessible and conveniently searchable online saving people and community groups time and effort.

Authoritative sources are essential for reliable historical research. One type of source that can be consulted is historical newspapers. Although many of these are only accessible from one location and require travel and much time to consult. Trove?s digitisation of historical newspapers makes the valuable sources of historical local newspapers accessible and readily searchable anytime and anywhere, with quick research being possible in moments of typing in words to the platform.

In partnership with community groups, research and cultural organisations, private donors and crowdfunding across Australia, the National Library of Australia has now digitised around 1500 Australian newspapers to Trove . However, there are still thousands of historical newspapers yet to be digitised. Some areas are under represented on Trove. Almost all the Knox and Dandenong Ranges area newspapers aren?t yet on Trove . With more funding it will be possible to see Knox and the Dandenong Ranges historical local newspapers digitised on Trove. There are newspapers ready to digitise all that is needed is funding. These include The Mountaineer (1920-1921); The Pilot (1921-1922); Fern Tree Gully news (1923-1947); Mountain District Free Press (1946-1954) and Ferntree Gully and district times (1953-1954).

A grant has been provided by the Shire of Yarra Ranges to the Dandenong Ranges Historical Council to help towards seeing the Mountain District Free Press (1946-1954) digitised and made searchable on Trove in 2019. We have signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the National Library of Australia, which means that progress has begun on digitising the newspaper, but unfortunately we don?t have all the funding to see the full run of more than 5,000 pages of the out of copyright portion of the newspaper digitised in 2019 and only have a couple of months to fundraise the remainder amont. Because of this we are crowdfunding on GoFundMe to hopefully fund the small remainder of the newspaper yet to be funded.

There are four other microfilmed historical local newspapers that are ready to be digitised with funding. A survey of the four newspapers yet to be partly-funded for digitisation shows that there is an estimated total of 9,834 pages in 1,418 weekly issues to be digitised between 1920 to 1954. We hope to receive an additional grant from Knox City Council in the future to help fund most of this, but not all that is needed is possible. Grantees that can provide part of the cost of their projects have a better chance of receiving grants, so any additional funds raised beyond the required amount for the Mountain District Free Press will help see these 4 newspapers digitised. Your support for our campaign will help make this possible.

By you supporting our campaign you?ll help make valuable sources of Knox?s and the Dandenong Ranges? communities readily accessible and quickly searchable saving people and community groups much time and effort. You?ll help make Trove more enriched with digitised newspapers that enable residents, community groups, enthusiasts and professional researchers the opportunity to research local history and a wealth of subject interests. This will mean people all over the world will be able to research these newspapers quite conveniently. It will also make the Knox and Dandenong Ranges communities? identities readily enriched by various community groups being able to research their respective history. You will be helping many people to engage with their history anywhere and anytime from the comfort and convenience of their internet enabled device.

Digitisation of one of the newspaper, Mountain District Free Press (1946-1954) is well under way. Scan Conversion Services, who are providing the microfilm scanning of the newspaper, have kindly provided a video of the scanning process. Thank you to Scan Conversion Services, Trove and the State Library of Victoria (who loaned the microfilm for the purpose). Soon the newspaper will be OCRed, have articles allocated and introductory transcription completed. The newspaper is on track to be searchable on Trove in mid-2019.

Digitisation of one of the newspaper, Mountain District Free Press (1946-1954) is well under way. Scan Conversion Services, who are providing the microfilm scanning of the newspaper, have kindly provided a video of the scanning process. Thank you to Scan Conversion Services, Trove and the State Library of Victoria (who loaned the microfilm for the purpose). Soon the newspaper will be OCRed, have articles allocated and introductory transcription completed. The newspaper is on track to be searchable on Trove in mid-2019.

Digitisation of one of the newspaper, Mountain District Free Press (1946-1954) is well under way. Scan Conversion Services, who are providing the microfilm scanning of the newspaper, have kindly provided a video of the scanning process. Thank you to Scan Conversion Services, Trove and the State Library of Victoria (who loaned the microfilm for the purpose). Soon the newspaper will be OCRed, have articles allocated and introductory transcription completed. The newspaper is on track to be searchable on Trove in mid-2019.